Badges, Patches & Awards: March 2014 Archives

This year we will be celebrating the Girl Scout Leadership Experience at
the annual meeting.The scheduling of
this meeting is always a challenge.The
annual meeting is set on the same weekend each year, but the date of Easter changes.Between Easter and the different spring
breaks on school calendars across our council, we can never find the perfect
weekend for everyone.With that said, we
will still celebrate what we are about: GIRLS!

GIRLS
are simply amazing. And GSSA girls are REALLY
amazing. We have a robotics team that,
despite being a new group, has done well at competitions. We have girls who go out in the woods on a
regular basis and learn skills they will use for a lifetime. We have lots of girls who sold lots of
cookies this year. Some who didn't
speak up before can now confidently approach strangers with a sales pitch -- a
young budding entrepreneur.

Many
of our girls drop out of Girl Scouts at age 11. And what experiences they miss by doing so! Those girls who do continue the Girl Scout
Leadership Experience become exceptional individuals. They are skilled in many life skills. Of those who continue, we award 90 Bronze Awards
each year. This is usually earned by troops
who do great projects. We have about 40
girls earn the Silver Award each year.
And last, but certainly not least, this past year we have seven girls
who have earned the Gold Award.

We
thought we would highlight the young women who have earned the Gold Award and who
will be presented their award at the annual meeting at Wehle Conservation
Center on March 29.

Elizabeth
Schloss is from Prattville. She is finishing her freshman year at Auburn, where
she plays xylophone in the band. For her
Gold Award project, Elizabeth set up tutoring sessions for Hispanic kids. She
involved her Beta club at school and held sessions at a local church after
Spanish mass. Elizabeth said one of the most successful aspects for her was
that the parents started coming with their kids, so she ended up with adults
being tutored as well as kids. Also, a principal at a local elementary school
heard about her project and asked her to come and do after school tutoring at
the elementary school.

Adrienne
Spivey is from Montgomery, where she is a senior at Montgomery Catholic
Preparatory School. Adrienne's Gold
Award project involved educating children about Alzheimer's disease. She
created and produced a video to help children understand changes they may see
in their elderly relatives and feel more confident interacting with them.
Adrienne has these words for girls who are thinking about going for the Gold
Award: "Taking on a serious Girl Scout project could seem impossible. Think
about the difference you will make by doing it, though. Think about the lives
you'll change. Think about how you'll be campaigning for something you not only
believe in, but that you created. This project may seem overwhelming, and even
be a bit challenging at times, but the outcome and the rewards are worth it
all."

Ann
Claire Carnahan is a senior at UMS-Wright in Mobile. Ann Claire worked with staff and volunteers
at Keep Mobile Beautiful to create and promote a website for their
organization. Keep Mobile Beautiful is a city of Mobile department that
operates as a not-for-profit environmental organization and depends heavily on
volunteers. Ann Claire designed and built a website, and used social media and
presentations to bring awareness to the public about the services that Keep
Mobile Beautiful offers. Ann Claire offers this advice to girls interested in
going for the Gold: "I would advise girls to align themselves with a community
organization that already has a need you can work towards fixing. Listening to
the organization's needs gave me the framework I needed to construct an
airtight, meaningful project."

These
young women (and all the others who have earned awards this year) are
outstanding examples of why we work hard, and why we celebrate girls.